18 year-old Dalila Cruz from Chelan Falls, Washington began her internship with the HUD Seattle Regional Office last month on August 29, 2006. She came to HUD under the Washington Farmworker Investment Program administered by the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) of Washington, a program designed to help transition farm worker families into non-agricultural occupations. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funds the program.

Ms. Cruz recently graduated from Glacier Valley High School located in rural Chelan. The fifth of six children in her family, she grew up in a family working in orchard fields in eastern Washington. Her father, Francisco Cruz is currently the manager of an orchard farm in Orondo, Washington while her mother, Alicia Cruz works for a fruit packing company in Chelan. Dalila, who has excellent Spanish and English-speaking skills, worked with her father, performing office work and processing time sheets of orchard workers, and served as a translator for many of the workers from Mexico who had limited-English speaking skills.

L to R: John Meyers, HUD Seattle Regional Director; Manny Lee, HUD Migrant Farm Worker Specialist; Dalila Cruz, HUD Intern; Henry Beauchamp; Executive Director, OIC of Washington; and Walter Liang, Secretary's Representative, DOL reviewing Washington Farm Worker Investment Program Agreement.

As a HUD intern, Dalila is primarily working in the Regional Director's office performing a wide range of administrative support work while learning about various HUD programs in the region. She has strong computer skills and is proficient using all Microsoft Office products as well as internet-based tools. Her cheerful demeanor has helped create positive interactions with the public. She says, "There's certainly a big difference between working in the orchard fields and working in a federal government agency. I'm learning much from this experience already". A resident of Burien, Washington now, she hopes to continue her education and plans to enroll in a community college within the next year.

This effort was an outgrowth of a regional federal interagency partnership between HUD and DOL to address migrant and farm worker issues.